Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers was originally going to be a puzzle game for the Game Boy Advance that was developed by Rare, Ltd.. However, the game was cancelled because in 2002, Rare was sold to Microsoft, which caused Rare to lose the rights to Donkey Kong franchise characters, before development of the game was complete. The game was eventually reworked into It's Mr. Pants, and was released on December 7, 2004.